Posted on 12/07/2003 8:53:06 AM PST by LibertySailor
Combat casualty count doubted
By Patrick Peterson KNIGHT RIDDER TRIBUNE
GULFPORT, Miss. - An influential Mississippi congressman has raised the possibility that the Pentagon has undercounted combat casualties in Iraq after he learned that five members of the Mississippi National Guard who were injured Sept. 12 by a booby trap in Iraq were denied Purple Heart medals.
The guardsmen were wounded by an artillery shell that detonated as their convoy passed the tree in which it was hidden, but their injuries were classified as "noncombat," according to Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss. Taylor, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, learned of the classification when he visited the most seriously injured of the guardsmen, Spc. Carl Sampson, 35, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
"How could no one have caught this?" Taylor said.
On Nov. 20, shortly after visiting Sampson, Taylor brought the matter to the attention of Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Purple Hearts quickly were awarded.
But Taylor said the incident raised concerns that Iraq combat casualties had been understated. He said Myers told him he'd been made aware of similar oversights.
"I'm probably going to send a memo out to the rest of the members of Congress and ask if anyone has had a similar incident," Taylor said Friday. "I just don't want to see anyone else who's been injured get cheated about their Purple Heart."
Defense Department statistics show that as of Thursday, some 2,150 service members had been wounded in action in Iraq, while 354 were injured in nonhostile incidents. Of 441 service members who have died in Iraq, 304 are listed as killed in hostile action; 137 deaths resulted from nonhostile action.
A Pentagon spokesman said the decision to award the Purple Heart was made at a unit level and that he couldn't explain how the misclassification occurred.
Members of the Mississippi National Guard were mystified. "Sampson should have already been awarded a Purple Heart," said Lt. Col. Tim Powell, a spokesman for the Guard. "An improvised explosive device built and placed with the intent to harm American soldiers is hostile."
Sampson, who sustained shrapnel wounds to his face and arms, is now hospitalized in Tampa.
The treating doctor must certify that the wound received was in fact due to enemy action as well.
L
You can also be awarded a purple heart outside of a combat zone, so long as it was during an incident with terrorists or otherwise hostile forces.
hopefully there aren't a bunch more soldiers in the same situation.
Well if there are, I sincerely hope that despite their injuries, they have more to look forward to than brooding over a medal. I'm not saying that bits of metal and ribbon aren't important, because symbolically, they are... more to some than others. If they are deserving of an award based on their service, they are entitled to it, with our thanks. If they have been slighted in an oversight, then they should get an apology as well. I would think that everyone concerned would approach this matter as mature and respectful adults, but someone took it upon themselves to ensure that is no longer possible in this case.
FWIW, I'd have nothing but praise for this congressman if he'd have followed up on a constituent's question and kept his (or someone's) big, fat mouth shut. If it's a screwup, find it out; if it's a cover-up, find it out. But he (or a staffer) didn't do that. And now, someone has provided another shovel full of vague accusations for the media to throw against the wall, complete with pious editorializing about another conspiracy. And that SUCKS!
Herbert McBride wrote about receiving his last paperwork from the British Consul some years after his service in WWI had ended:
"The whole business was clean-cut and simple- and human. It might have been handled through the mail. A packet of forms, in quadruplicate, initialed here and there by uniformed clerks, locating, identifying and disposing of one McBride, an item of cast off war material, would have served the ends of some organizations. But the genius of common sense in the British War Office was humanely dissolving the bonds which makes armies. You can't put them on paper. it is a universal understanding between men and I accepted the two medals as mere formal tokens of this, possessing a meaning exactly matching my understanding of it."
The soldiers should be dealing with soldiers, because a politician or a newspaper is seldom of any benefit except to politicians and newspapers
Bingo! My son had to have a laceration closed that didn't warrant a Purple Heart. The injury was reported but it was an accident. This is no different than a jumping accident he had during peacetime training, it was reported and does reflect in statistics of every day injuries related to job function.
(I know, 2 different papers, 2 different titles.)
It's about time. ;-)
OK guys. The first one to ID him next time gets a cookie.
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